Kids profiles
A Kids profile is a profile for a child. It never sees a locked category, it has a short Settings of its own, and everything else stays with the adults. What every profile has, its own favourites, history and look, the PINs and who manages the household, is on Profiles, PINs and locked categories.
The rules are the same on a phone, a tablet, Android TV, Fire TV, Apple TV, LG and Samsung TVs, Windows and the Mac. Only where things sit differs between the phone layout and the television layout.
Making one
Section titled “Making one”An adult profile makes it:
- Settings → Profiles & PIN → Add profile, on a phone and on a television or a computer.
- Give it a name, a colour and an emoji or an avatar picture.
- Choose Kids. On a phone the button also says it has limited settings.
- Optionally give it a PIN of 4 digits, see PINs and switching out.
- Create profile.
To turn an existing profile into a Kids profile, edit it: the pencil on the profile on a phone, or hold OK on it and Edit profile on a television. In the account panel, open the profile on the Profiles page and set Kind to Kids, or choose Kids when you make a new one there.
- The first profile, the one the app started with, is always an adult profile.
- Once an adult profile has a PIN, making a profile or changing its kind asks for a parent’s PIN, see Hiding things from its lists for whose PIN that is.
- An account holds up to 5 profiles, Kids profiles included.
What it can see
Section titled “What it can see”| What | On a Kids profile |
|---|---|
| Playlists | Only the playlists the profile is allowed to open, see Which playlists a profile can open. It cannot switch playlists: the playlist pill at the top of Home on a phone does nothing, and the playlist card is missing from the side menu on a television |
| Locked categories | Never, anywhere: not in the lists, not in search, not on Home, not in Continue watching, Recently watched or Favorites, not through a reminder or a link. Its own PIN does not open them |
| Adult categories of a MAC portal | Treated as locked without you locking them |
| Hidden categories and channels | Whatever you hid for the child stays out of its lists. Hiding is not locking: a hidden channel still plays from Favorites or Continue watching |
| Search | Works as usual and leaves out everything above. Its recent searches are its own |
| Home | Its own rows on each device, which it can change in its Settings |
| Movies, Series, the guide, catch-up, multiview | As on any profile, within the limits above |
The app does not filter titles by age rating. What a child can reach is decided by the playlists it may open, the categories you lock and what you hide for it. To keep a category out of reach, lock it: Settings → Categories, then the lock on the category, from an adult profile with a PIN, see Setting it up for a family.
A Kids profile is never asked the questions a new device asks, Choose your Home (Sports or Regular) and Set up the player. They wait for an adult profile.
Where an adult would see a button to set something up, a Kids profile sees a line instead, such as Ask a parent to add a playlist. when there is no playlist yet, and on a television Ask a parent to make groups from their own profile. in My groups. An empty Home on a television has no Choose what Home shows button.
Its short Settings
Section titled “Its short Settings”A Kids profile opens a short Settings. Everything it changes there belongs to that profile only.
| Phone and tablet | Television, Windows and the Mac |
|---|---|
| Profile: Switch profile | Appearance: its theme, colours, picture strength and panel opacity |
| Theme picture: its theme, colours, picture strength and panel opacity | Home: Start screen, Sports hero and its Home rows |
| Home screen: Start screen, Pin what I follow and its Home rows | Audio & subtitles: Preferred audio, Subtitles, Preferred subtitles |
| Audio & subtitles: Default audio, Subtitles, Default subtitles | Switch profile: Who is watching? |
| System: About & legal | About: the version, updates and Report a bug |
Both end with Everything else is set by a parent on their own profile. The look is described on Look and layout and the rows on The home screen.
Not there, and not reachable from anywhere else either: playlists, categories, the player and engine, the guide sources, recordings and downloads settings, the app language, the clock, Theme (Dark or OLED), the sizes and the side menu, Sports settings, integrations, sync, account, devices, the subscription and Profiles & PIN. A button or a link that would open one of them takes a Kids profile back instead.
A child can change back what you set in its short Settings, such as its theme or its Home rows. That never shows a locked category.
Hiding things from its lists
Section titled “Hiding things from its lists”Holding a category in the lists of a Kids profile offers Hide from browsing, as on any profile, but on a Kids profile it asks for a parent’s PIN first. The note under it says A parent shows it again from their own profile. Hiding channels from the lists asks for the same PIN.
Pinning a category to the top of its list, or adding it to Home as a row, needs no PIN: it only changes the child’s own lists.
A parent’s PIN is the PIN of a profile that manages the household, see Which playlists a profile can open.
PINs and switching out
Section titled “PINs and switching out”A Kids profile can have a PIN of its own. It is asked when the app opens and when the app comes back from the background, and Profiles & PIN shows the profile as Kids · PIN asked when the app opens. It never opens a locked category.
To leave a Kids profile:
- on a phone: Switch profile in its Settings, or the profile picture at the top of Home when there is more than one profile,
- on a television, Windows and the Mac: your account at the bottom of the side menu, or Settings → Switch profile → Who is watching?.
The list offers no Add profile and no Manage profiles on a Kids profile. Switching to a profile with a PIN asks for that PIN. An adult profile without a PIN can be opened by anyone, the child too, so give the adult profiles a PIN.
A device can open straight in the Kids profile with Profile this device opens in, such as the television in the children’s room, see Who is watching.
Premium and purchases
Section titled “Premium and purchases”A Kids profile never sees a plan or a purchase screen, and the plan pill in the top bar of a television is not there. When the device needs an adult, the child sees what to ask for instead of the purchase screen:
| When | The child sees |
|---|---|
| Premium ended | Premium has ended on this device. Ask a parent to renew it. |
| Premium could not be checked | Connect this device to the internet, or ask a parent for help. |
| Too many devices on the account | The account is already in use on too many devices. Ask a parent to make room for this one. |
| The device needs a sign-in | Ask a parent to sign in on this device to keep watching. |
| The email address needs verifying | Ask a parent to open the verification email and confirm the address. |
Each has Switch profile, so a parent can move to their own profile there and sort it out.
When a television asks a phone to finish a purchase and the phone is on a Kids profile, the phone says Plans open only on an adult profile. Ask a parent to finish this from their own profile.
Sports
Section titled “Sports”A Kids profile uses Sports like any profile while the account has the trial or Premium, and follows teams of its own. Without them it reads Ask a parent if you would like live scores and matches here., and on a device that is not signed in Ask a parent to sign in on this device to see Sports. Neither has a button.
The Sports settings are not in its short Settings. To hide scores and results for the child, use the account panel: choose the child’s profile in the top bar, open Sports, and turn on Hide scores under Scores. The same page sets what the child follows, its pinned leagues and the sports and leagues it hides. See Hide scores.
On Home the child chooses its own Sports hero on a television and Pin what I follow on a phone. The other Sports options for Home belong to the device and are set from an adult profile, see Sports on Home.
Downloads, recordings and the network folder
Section titled “Downloads, recordings and the network folder”A Kids profile can download and record. In Downloads and Recordings it sees:
- what it saved itself, and what was saved on the device before downloads and recordings belonged to a profile,
- only what its own lists allow: nothing from a locked, adult or hidden category,
- never what other profiles saved, even when an adult turned on All profiles on this device.
Recordings found on a network folder are never shown to a Kids profile. Deleting a file removes it from the device for every profile.
With Lock the network folder on, a Kids profile does not see the network folder at all, see A network folder.
Trakt, TMDB and other sign-ins
Section titled “Trakt, TMDB and other sign-ins”A Kids profile cannot connect services itself. From your profile, in What … sees → Integrations, the child can use your Trakt or TMDB sign-in. Plots and posters from TMDB show on every profile anyway, because the key is shared.
Setting it up from your profile
Section titled “Setting it up from your profile”From an adult profile you set what the child sees, see Setting up a child’s profile from yours:
- Phone: Settings → Profiles & PIN, the pencil on the child’s profile, What … sees: its hidden categories and channels, its Home screen, its Theme picture, its Audio & subtitles, its trailers and its integrations.
- Television, Windows and the Mac: Settings → Profiles & PIN, hold OK on the child’s profile, What … sees: Categories, Home, Appearance, Audio & subtitles and Integrations, then All settings to go back.
Locks are different: a lock on a category applies to every profile without a PIN, so it is set once in Settings → Categories.
In the account panel
Section titled “In the account panel”The account panel is signed in as the account owner, so a Kids profile limits nothing there. For a child it can:
- make a Kids profile, or turn one into Kids with Kind on the Profiles page,
- set or remove its PIN and choose which playlists it can open,
- open Categories or Channels under What … sees to hide them for the child. For a profile with a PIN the page asks you to choose it in the top bar instead, and the top bar asks for its PIN,
- with the child chosen in the top bar: its look under Common settings → Appearance, its Sports page with Hide scores, and its Home rows on each device under Device settings → Home.
The panel sums a Kids profile up as: it never sees locked categories or categories your provider marks as adult, changes only its own theme, Home rows and languages, and cannot buy Premium.
